Christmas in Seattle 2013

Visiting the Puget Sound area for a weekend before Christmas has been a tradition that started 10 years ago as a freshman in college. The winter after Traci and I were married we skipped on visiting and it felt as if though Christmas never came. It's neat to see all the stores, streetlights and homes decorated for the holidays. Spending a weekend around the Puget Sound is a great way to get into the spirit of the holidays.

This year we left on Friday from Walla Walla and had a foggy drive till we reached the Columbia River. The drive as always was beautiful as we could see the Cascade Mountain Range covered in snow off in the distance. When we arrived at Snoqualmie Pass we took a few photos of Ben's first encounter with snow, although he was more excited to be out of the car than anything else. After we dilly dally in the snow for a while, we jumped in the car and continued west towards Trophy Cupcakes. Traci had reserved 12 cupcakes to pick up as soon as we got into Bellevue to prepare ourselves for a weekend of fun. Once we arrived in Bellevue we noticed that the headlights on the Jeep decided to stop lighting our way so we stopped by a local auto parts store to purchase a headlight switch before the night fell on us. Our friend Ben Blood was kind enough to give us shelter from the cold for the weekend so after settling ourselves we headed towards the Space Needle where we caught the Monorail toward Westlake Center where the Christmas Tree Lighting was to take place. Unfortunately we got there a bit late but we still got a chance to see the ginormous tree among the sea of people.

On Saturday we had the opportunity to visit Snoqualmie Falls with a few good ol' college friends. We walked the half mile trail to the base of the waterfalls but were unable to find the elevator to take us back up. Ben gave us the chance to exercise our upper body muscles as we carried him back up the trail. It was quite nice to stretch the legs and enjoy a sabbath afternoon walk by the Snoqualmie river. The next day was far more adventurous as we needed to catch the early ferry headed to Bremerton. I had read about a lost locomotive that had been buried at Fort Worden then discovered in the 70's and was curious to get a glimpse of it. The two volunteers that I had spoken with had no idea of what I was talking about yet after a little searching we found the small locomotive sitting in an old garage waiting for restoration one day. Fort Worden is a great place to walk around and explore the old batteries, bunk house, barracks or whatever. We didn't get too much time to explore before needing to head back south and visit Traci's cousin in Bremerton. Their kid (Reed) is getting quite big and is able to run around the house at a lightning speed; a glimpse of the days to come in my home. We ate a small meal and as always made a mad dash back to the ferry terminal to catch our ride back to Seattle. The view of Seattle from the ferry is one of the moments I look forward to the most. It has been quite a difficult task to take a picture of the city because of the low light and noise created from taking digital pictures. This then was a perfect moment to test my new camera's high ISO settings and take a few pictures. The one night shot was taken at f2 1/60 at ISO 8000, pretty low noise for that setting. Once we arrived in Bellevue we were hoping to visit the Botanical garden light show but were distracted by the new line of Jeep Cherokees. I'm not sure I will ever accept the look of these new models but on paper they seem to be quite the capable vehicles. So I took a picture of a Cherokee Trailhawk alongside my Cherokee. Interesting is all I have to say.

On Monday we visited the Columbia Center and saw the city of Seattle from above the ground. It was quite spectacular to stand above the rest of the sky scrapers and see the ferries or ships head in and out from the docks way below. We had been tinkering with purchasing a Yakima Skybox for our Christmas trip to Montana to fit all of Ben's gifts so after a short visit to REI we signed on the dotted line. It has been a tradition to visit Kidd's Valley for some veggies burgers so we ate a late lunch and Traci ate the last cupcake before beginning our drive back home. Our trip was quite pretty as the mountain were receiving a fresh blanket of snow then later enjoyed a wonderful sunset as we reached Ellensburg. Once again the trip was memorable and we came back home with the spirit of the holidays. Ben is amazing to travel with, Traci got a dozen cupcakes and I got a ferry ride... yep, living the life.

1st Annual Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was rather simple this year. We stayed in Walla Walla and had a meal with my mother. I had to work early in the day and make 160 loaves so I was exhausted by the time the afternoon rolled in. We decided to take the day easy and take our holiday photo since we both had the day off. Thanksgiving day was about taking a restful day and that's exactly what we did.

Each year around Thanksgiving my mom will say that she is thankful for her 3 kids. It seems rather repetitive each year but interestingly enough, this year I am the most thankful for Ben. The cycle of being thankful for your kids each year is one that I now comprehend and will continue each year. I never imagined Ben could bring such happiness in my life.

"it's even easier"

Exactly a year ago Traci and I began waiting for the arrival of the new family member. It was exciting yet nerve racking the thought that I was to become a father to someone. I can recall the following months feeling like time had slowed down. The days were filled with the thought that my life would soon change for the better yet somehow it still remained an enigma. How can it be that parents love their kids yet complain about the lack of sleep, time, patience or finances? To be honest I don't have the answers because I am not them.... Where am I going with this post?

This past year has been by far the best year of my life. I have been blessed with a healthy son and a great wife that bakes me cupcakes. I get to raise my son in the same house where his great great grandparents lived. God has given me a pretty good hand. It's easy to focus on the bad things of life, but with Ben and Traci it's even easier to focus on the good things of life.

3 Months Later

Traci and I were at the hospital exactly 3 months ago at this exact time. She was laying on the delivery bed and I was sitting near her while trying to distract her of the pain. The TV was on as the dvd of "Too Cute Puppies" kept on replaying over and over. We kept the lights in room dimmed and off in the distance the occasional cry of newborns in the post maternity rooms reminded us that our life would soon change.

Three months later I can still hear the cries of a newborn in the distance as I write this post; mostly because Traci is trying to put Ben to sleep upstairs. Today Traci dropped Ben and I at the Abandoned Honda dealership and we slowly made our way back home. Ben practically slept the whole way and perhaps he overslept which is why he is wide awake at 10:30 pm. Besides taking pictures of Ben with a 3 candle cupcake, we didn't do much. We walked around Shopko to see all the seasonal sales and bought Ben a Matchbox 1955 Cadillac Fleetwood and a Hot Wheels 1970 Plymouth AAR Cuda.

Happy Birthday Ben! Now, I must end this post and head upstairs to help your mom and put you to sleep.

5th Anniversary: Tacoma

This year was quite different than any other anniversary. For one, we were not sure of where to go until a couple of days before the special date and secondly, I only had two days off from work. We were definitely not going to stay in town for our anniversary, that would be lame. We had to do something different, something we had never done before. One of our best idea was to visit Vantage, the Saturday after our anniversary for the annual reliability run, however, that would mean spending the night at Ellensburg or Moses Lake. But really, on my anniversary? I like eastern Washington but not that much. So where could we go?

After much thinking, we finally decided to visit the LeMay Auto Museum in Tacoma. Seattle is 4 hours from home so we packed up the Jeep and headed west early Friday morning. The drive was sunny until we arrived at Snoqualmie Pass where the clouds were creeping over the summit and dissipating almost immediately. It felt great to be in a cloudy and green climate once again after spending plenty of sunny and hot days in Walla Walla. Anyhow, we arrived in Belleve and met up with our friend Ben Blood and after eating veggie burgers from Burger King we headed south to Tacoma. On our drive we mentioned to Mr. Blood that we were celebrating our anniversary and perhaps he could take a couple of snapshots of us. It's always difficult to ask a photographer to take pictures since that's his profession yet he was kind enough to take more than just a few shots. It's nice to hand over the camera to someone and not have to explain how to use it or have to place it on a tripod and run back.

After walking around and taking pictures around Tacoma, we headed towards the much awaited LeMay Museum. They currently have an exhibition on corvettes and although corvettes are for men during midlife crisis, they actually had some pretty neat and rare models. The museum is very well set up with plenty of information on the walls and facts about rare vehicles. I got to see a Tucker for the first time and a 1923 Buick model 35. The museum is 4 stories and packed so that meant a lot of walking. On the third floor the museum has set up a slot car racetrack and for the cost 6 bucks Mr. Blood and I raced around the track. Notice how my blue Camaro unleashes the nitrous to defeat Mr. Blood.... hmmm... yeah, turns out that was the first lap. Although I won't mention the rest of the laps I will mention that after visiting the museum we went to Hello Cupcakes to enjoy some delicious and nutritious cupcakes, or was that just delicious? I forget. I have heard that a man can not live on cupcakes alone, what's that all about? So we headed to the Spaghetti factory where Traci got the Manager's Special (Mizithra and Brown butter with Marinara) and I got Cheese Ravioli's. Ben is still not interested in solid foods so he took a nap. We rented a condo near the Space Needle for the night and after getting all settled in, it seemed rather adult behavior to call it a night at 10pm. Hey, this is our anniversary. So we bundled up Ben and walked around the Seattle Center for a couple of hours.

Saturday seemed quite short of a day, we visited the Ballard Church and ate some delicious lunch with our friend Mr. Blood. We drove to Discovery Park after our meal and enjoyed a nice walk around the park. Traci had mentioned that she would have liked to visit Trophy Cupcakes on this trip so we made sure to stop in Bellevue before heading out. It was a bit after 6pm by the time we left Seattle and just having done that trip the previous day meant I was wasted on the drive back. Ben had a difficult time after Ellensburg but slept well once we passed the Columbia River around Handford.

It's amazing to think that it's been five years since Traci and I got married. Marriage has been great! I have been tremendously blessed to have Traci in my life. She likes cupcakes, likes cars and is supporting when I want to take a walk around the Space Needle around midnight. She's amazing. She's my wife.